Rebirth
by Please Delete No Longer In Use
Summary: Twenty years after the Titans split up, Tim Drake, the new Robin, forms a new Teen Titans to fight the mysterious villain that claims to be Slade's son. Please R&R!
1. The Funeral

**Rebirth**

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Twenty years after the Titans split up, Tim Drake, the new Robin, forms a new Teen Titans to fight the mysterious villain that claims to be Slade's son.

Prologue – The Funeral 

Tim Drake rapped his knuckles against the front door of ten Prince Street in the city of Bludhaven. He was here visiting an old friend, but more importantly, attending that's friend's wife's funeral. The friend was Dick Grayson, and his dead wife had been a Tamoranian female called Starfire. They had married eighteen years ago, two years after the Teen Titans had split up. They had met each other when Robin, Dick, had formed the group, and had fallen in love with each other.

In the final battle against Slade, when a third member, Raven, was killed, Dick had confessed his love for Starfire as Slade was about to shoot her. Then Beast Boy had sacrificed his life to save her, diving in front of the bullet…Cyborg, the fifth and final member of the team, had sustained heavy damage and was dismantled soon after. That left Starfire and Dick as the only surviving members of the original Teen Titans. Slade had fallen off a cliff in the final battle with Dick. The two remaining members became engaged immediately and married two years after. But they were never truly happy. They found themselves feeling incomplete without their friends, and argued constantly. But they had still had a son, named Axel. He was half-Tamoranian, half-human, and he had the power to generate blasts of energy just like his mother. Starfire had given birth to him fourteen years ago, and her marriage had gone downhill ever since.

Tim's thoughts were broken into by a familiar voice, saying, "Tim. I'm glad you're here."

Tim gazed up at Dick Grayson's heartbroken face, and knew then that his heart was broken.

"How are you?" the younger man asked tentatively, stepping inside and tightening his tie a little.

"As well as can be expected," Dick croaked through a raspy throat.

Tim followed Dick into the living room, which was crammed full of Dick's family and friends, not to mention Starfire's. Everyone was talking quietly, apart from a tall, muscular boy with dark blonde hair and startling blue eyes. Axel. Tim had never spoken to him; although they were the same age, he had never really found the time. Schoolwork and crime fighting kept him busy most of the time. Nevertheless, Tim threaded through the crowd of people and seated himself next to the boy.

"Hi," Tim greeted. "My name's Tim. I'm one of Dick's friends."

Axel locked eyes with Tim. "Axel. Can you leave me alone?"

Tim swallowed visibly. "I'm sorry to have disturbed you. Maybe we'll speak later," he said, standing.

"We won't," Axel assured him, and turned away.

Tim loosened his collar and strode over to Dick. "Is Axel okay?"

"Well, what do you think, Einstein?" Dick snapped. "Take a look at him. His mother's dead, for goodness' sake."

"I – I'm sorry, Dick," Tim replied, reaching up to grip the older man's shoulder.

"Everybody is, Tim," Dick replied tearfully, "but it doesn't bring her back."


	2. Goodbye

Chapter 1 – Goodbye 

Dick Grayson was slumped down on the cemetery grass, staring at his late wife's gravestone. It read:

_CARING MOTHER, LOVING WIFE, GREAT HERO_

"She was all of those things, wasn't she, Dad?"

Dick turned to see Axel behind him. He was wearing a loose white t-shirt and battered old jeans; his scruffy dark blonde hair was tidied a little by a blue piece of cloth tied around his head. His baby blue eyes were hazed over with a sheen of tears, and they were glued to the travel bag that was slung over his father's shoulder.

"Yes, she was, son," Dick answered, standing and throwing an arm round his shoulder.

"So then why are you running away?" Axel snapped.

Dick pulled his arm back and cradled his head in his hands. "I'm not running."

"Oh yeah? Well if you aren't running, then why are you leaving the country instead of trying to find out who injected Mum with that virus?" his son cried.

"You don't understand, Axel," Dick murmured. "I've had a whole life of fighting, if not as Robin, then as Nightwing. Now it's time to stop. Because all fighting has ever done to my life is wreck it. Now it's taken my wife from me. I can't handle it any more."

"But why do you have to leave?" Axel pleaded. "Stay!"

Dick's shoulders slumped. "I can't. I have to have a whole new start to a whole new life – on my own."

"Then you really will be alone, Dad," Axel snarled, and leapt into the air. He had inherited his mother's gift of flight as well as her energy powers, except he didn't have full control over any of his abilities yet.

But Dick watched, astounded, as his son soared through the air like a bird, blue energy crackling across his body and enveloping him. Dick gulped in pride and grief as Axel flashed up into the sky, disappearing into the dark night sky. It began to rain.

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Tim watched the droplets of rain fall from the sky and plop gently on his bedroom window. He was back at his home, Wayne Manor, and was about to suit up for his nightly patrol. He had returned from the funeral two days ago, but the misery and general depression that had run through the crowd was still hanging on his shoulders. He was angry with Starfire's murderer, and he _was _going to find out who had killed her. He _was_.

"Tim!" Bruce Wayne's stern voice echoed through into the bedroom. "It's time for patrol!"

Tim slowly stood and left the room, all the time thinking of what sort of clues would tell him who the killer was. He had to bring him to justice – he owed Dick that much.

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She floated in the tank, lifelessly bobbing up and down in the water. The breather that was clamped to her mouth enhanced the rasp of her breathing. It echoed through the metallic chamber. Her long black hair flowed down to her waist. She was a supersoldier, genetically engineered to fight the battles that no human ever could. To her fully active mind, she was a freak. But from the refined sinews of her body, the muscular limbs and the feline grace of her whole person, she was anything but a freak. Her eyelids flittered back, revealing sparkling emerald green eyes. She panicked, her mind bare of the years of work that had brought her to life. She saw all those outside the tank, all those who created her, as enemies. And they were a threat.

She tore free of the tubes that were suckered to her skin, and her nails bit into the glass surrounding her and she tore away large chunks of it. Water began leaking out. She pushed herself out of the tank, ripping off her breathing mask and rolling up into a defensive start. The men in the room dashed around, pulling guns from holsters and hitting alarms. But it was too late. She struck swiftly and surely, knocking each to the floor with skilled, fluid movements. A roundhouse kick took out one, a backhand punch with her right hand another. She flipped back, catching a soldier on the chin with her feet, and propelled a scientist over her head with her hands. There was only one man left – a small, frail old man with glasses and a greyish beard. A badge was pinned to his white labcoat. It read, 'Professor Charles Haytee, Head of Project: Alpha'. She tore the badge from him and dropped it into the pocket of the loose bathing robe that hung around her.

"Please…no…" he stuttered.

Her hands locked around his throat, and screams resounded through the chamber…

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"I thought I'd find you here," Robin remarked.

Axel Grayson was sprawled out on the floor of the cemetery, in front of his mother's gravestone. His soft snores told Robin that he was asleep, and although the Boy Wonder was reluctant to wake him, he did so.

"Huh, what…?" Axel came out of his doze, and squinted up at Robin. "Oh…" he mumbled, looking at his surroundings.

"Are you okay?" Robin asked. "You look a little…battered."

"Yeah," Axel murmured. His shoulders slumped. "I tried to stop his plane. Ended up getting hit by it instead. Lucky I'm pretty much invincible, huh?"

"What?! You got hit by a plane?" Robin cried. "Who were you trying to stop?"

"He's gone, Tim," Axel said tearfully. "He's gone, he's never coming back, he's run away! He's abandoned me!" Tears seeped from his eyes as the half-Tamaranian boy started to sob.

"Who's gone, Axel?" Robin asked, squeezing his shoulder reassuringly. "Who's gone?"

"Dad," Axel replied simply, and started weeping harder.

Robin gasped. Dick had left? Why? He hadn't said goodbye to Bruce, or Barbara! He'd just left!

"You're not alone, Axel," Robin said determinedly. "You'll never be alone. I'll always be there for you. You'll always have friends."

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_"You'll always have friends…" _

Perched on top of a building overlooking the cemetery, a masked man watched Robin comfort Axel, and laughed. But it wasn't a friendly chuckle. It was a cold, hard laugh that chilled the night air.

_"You'll always have enemies as well…"_


	3. The Arrow and the Flame

Chapter 2 – The Arrow and the Flame 

Monica Kidd was terrified. She'd only been out getting some clothes at her local shopping centre. That was innocent and harmless enough. So why had the mechanical monster come to attack her? She was only a teenager, sixteen to be exact. She had long red hair that was made up of little curls, and her body was slim. She was quite an athlete, and was employing all her skills to get away.

**TEST SUBJECT ATTEMPTING TO ESCAPE. APPREHENDING.**

Its mechanical voice repeated it over and over again. Monica had dodged its steel tentacles only by luck. Then her heartthrob had arrived – Arsenal. The sworn protector of Star City, the teenage hero had no super powers, just a bow, some arrows, and a Robin Hood-style hat. The robot was huge; its long arms hung down at its side, bristling with laser guns, and its long iron legs had rocket launchers fitted. Even its domed head had a torpedo on either side. Arsenal was blown back by a laser cannon and slammed hard into the marble floor of the shopping centre hallway. Wrecked and ruined shops surrounded him, and fragments of clothes and toys were scattered everywhere.

"Uhh…" he groaned in pain. "That hurt…a lot!"

The robot took two large steps towards him and looked down. The teenager shuddered at the torpedoes pointing down at him.

"First things first," he rasped weakly. "We gotta take out those torpedoes before they cause serious damage!"

He rolled away just as the robot fired its laser cannon again. This time, the blast only melted a few feet into the floor. He pulled the bow and a glowing energy arrow from his back and leapt straight up into the air as another laser scored the ground where he had just been. He shot out the energy arrow as he was in the air. The robot moved its head to the side, and the arrow went wide. Arsenal hit the ground running, sprinting towards the robot. He swiftly sidestepped as lasers slashed through the air, and sometimes he cut it so close that he could smell the faint burning smell of the blast.

He jumped again, shooting off another arrow, this one a bomb, at the robot's head. It moved again, and the arrow detonated on the roof, bringing chunks of concrete down around the combatants. The robot smacked Arsenal's body hard with the back of its mammoth hand, and took the unconscious body between two fingers. Hiding behind the counter of a jewellery store, Monica gasped as the robot started to crush Arsenal.

At first she didn't know what to do – what could she do? – but her racing mind found a solution within moments. She rolled away from the counter, coming up by a fire extinguisher. She disconnected it from the wall, and hurled it as hard as she could at the robot. It impacted like a stone against a brick wall. With a small _donk_, the fire extinguisher clattered to the ground. And brought the robot's attention back to its 'test subject'. It dropped Arsenal to the floor, and tromped towards her.

Monica cowered, and dashed behind the counter. A laser blast quickly disposed of that. She pressed herself against the back wall, tears running down her cheeks. The robot raised its arm, and a small silver sphere popped out of one of the many guns on that limb. The sphere rolled to a stop beside Monica, and a slit opened in it. The teenage girl tried to run, but a green mist hissed out of the slit, its thick, pungent scent wandering up her nostrils and entering her mouth. She coughed repeatedly, and her eyes began to go hazy. Then the robot set her on fire with a flamethrower.

At first it hurt so much that she felt nothing, but then, curiously, the pain began to fade…slowly but steadily…but then it was back, burning through her body. And strangely, she liked it. She loved the fire that was engulfing her, swirling around her…_becoming her_! She was the flame now, and the flame was her. The gas had somehow prepared her body for what was to come, and instead of killing her, the fire had coated her body and she couldn't stop it. The robot tossed a small, leather suit and gold metal belt down to her.

**TEST COMPLETE. SUBJECT NOW FLAME. TEST SUCCESSFUL.**

"What…?" Monica asked, dazed from her ordeal. "Test?"

An energy arrow collided with the torpedo on the side of the robot's head. There was a deafening bang as the explosion ripped through the mechanical monster's head and body. The remnants of the robot clattered to the floor, leaving a fiery trail behind them. Monica looked at her saviour.

Arsenal staggered over to her, his eyes struggling to stay open.

"What in the world happened to you?" he managed to say.

"It hurts," Monica replied as tears of flame burned down her fiery cheeks, and collapsed to the floor.

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Monica Kidd woke in a hospital bed, no longer a being of pure fire…but…_normal _again. She noticed that she was also not wearing the jeans and blouse she had been wearing at the shopping centre; she was in the leather suit that the robot had thrown to her.

"So you're finally awake," a familiar voice said from the side of her bed. She looked to see Arsenal sitting there in his full glory, with his crimson gloves and hat with yellow feather, as well as his red bodysuit and black mask covering the top half of his face.

"What happened to me?" she asked.

"As far as the doctors could tell," Arsenal began, "that whole thing was some kind of experiment. Who by, or why they picked you, we don't know, but we're hoping to find that out soon."

"It doesn't hurt anymore," she realised. "Why not? Why aren't I all fire like I was back at the shopping centre?"

"That suit that the robot threw down to you is like an on/off switch for your 'fiery state'," Arsenal explained. "You seem to have the power to shoot and control fire in your other state, as well as being able to fly."

"Whoa…" Monica murmured in realisation. "That means I could be a superhero!"

"Maybe," Arsenal said reluctantly.

Monica glanced at him. "Why only maybe?"

"The suit may let you turn your flame on and off, but it will only stop some of the pain." He sighed. "Every time you use your powers, it will hurt a little."

Monica gulped. "That was terrible…awful! I can't do it! I've gotta get this suit off!" she screamed hysterically. "I WILL BE NORMAL!!!" She began clawing at the leather suit.

"Wait!" Arsenal cried, grabbing her hands. "If you take the suit off, you'll revert to your normal form!"

"That's what I want!" she cried. "I want to be normal again! I don't want pain!"

Arsenal bit his lower lip. This was going to be hard. "Your normal form is the fire, Monica. You're no longer Monica Kidd – from what the scientists could get out of a microchip they found in a wreckage, you were going to be called Flame."

Monica's head fell into her hands and she began to sob loudly. Arsenal slowly put his arm around her shoulders and drew her into a hug.

"I want to be normal," she said quietly through her weeping. "I just want to be normal…"

Connor buried his face in her red curls. "I know what you mean."


End file.
